Open Eyes
by LOLChanny819
Summary: And when this is all over, you'll be absolutely breathtaking. You'll have achieved everything you've worked so hard for. Now doesn't that make it all worth it?


**Disclaimer: I don't own Sonny with a Chance OR anyone's birthdays mentioned. I don't own the song Open Eyes by Debby Ryan either, but it's beautiful. But it would be really cool to own the people. **

**Okay, people. I'm so incredibly sorry for not updating in ages, but I'm seriously trying. And then I realized I would disappoint three people if I didn't write a birthday one shot. And…well…I don't like to disappoint. SO, I feel bad, but I'm squishing you guys together. I hope you don't mind. You're all special to me. Okay, dedication time.**

**Channyfanx10: So we just started talking recently, but I already feel awesomely close to you. You're so bubbly and fun, and you keep me on my toes. Happy super belated birthday!**

**TheUnderstatement: Wow, I realize I'm so late. But you're a person who draws me in and makes me smile, and I really relate to you. So happy belated birthday, and I really hope your wishes came true!**

**xXUnbreakableSoulXx: Oh my golly gee, Anna! You're so old! Haha, just kidding, you aren't that much older than me. But seriously, happy actual birthday! You're the world to me, and it doesn't matter that you stopped PMing for a while. You're back now, and I was never mad. Besides, you're so awesome and get me so much I could NEVER be mad. Happy birthday!**

**Now, I will sing the Chad Song for you. **** (By the way, who else sang on Sterling's birthday? I did! And we ate brownies! Woo! I used the Chad song AND the regular birthday song. **** but my mom called him a monkey. It's okay Sterling, we still think you're nice. Happy birthday to you, too.)**

**People it's your birthday and it shouldn't be bad, you deserve the best, the gift of Chad, so come on lucky friends and sing along, to Chaddy's awesome birthday song! Chad, Chad, Chaddy Chad Chad. (x4 cuz I'm too lazy to type it out) CHAD!**

**Okay, so this is probably longer than the actual story now, but you guys are worth it. Happy birthday everybody!**

Open Eyes

He stood in front of her looking completely different than she had ever seen him. Normally his eyes were filled with assurance; he knew he was talented. But right now she saw no trace of arrogance anywhere in his crystal blue eyes. And to be honest, it frightened her.

Chad had always been an egomaniac. Sonny knew that. It was just part of who he was and always would be. This had to be pretty big if it was messing with the laws of life. And it was. This had the potential to make or break Chad Dylan Cooper.

She wished more than anything she could take the few steps into his arms and make him see that everything would be just fine. However, considering they weren't even remotely friendly and never quite had been, it would have looked a little more than strange. So she stayed rooted in her spot, telling herself she was glued to the floor.

Taking a deep breath, Chad ran a hand through his hair and continued to pace back and forth, back and forth. "Sonny, I don't think I can do this. Let's just go back, okay? We can pretend this never happened."

She laughed breathlessly, earning a skeptical look from the blonde diva a few feet away from her. "You're crazy, Cooper. We've worked so hard for this, and I'm not letting you ruin this because you're _scared_."

He scrunched up his nose at her, crossing his arms at the same time. "I'm not scared. I'm just…_apprehensive_. I mean, of course I have what it takes, but…what if I blow it because I make one wrong move? What if they turn me down?"

Shaking her head, Sonny couldn't help but laugh again at how oblivious this kid was. "Chad, _I_ trained you. Of course you're going to do fine. Don't you remember how hard I've worked you for the last week and a half?"

Chad frowned at her, remembering. "Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean you taught me the _right_ things. And what if you missed out on something? What then? Am I going to fail? And if I do, are you going to try to say it's _my_ fault and not yours? Because it _would_ be your fault. Just saying."

Sonny groaned, walking over to him finally and putting a hand on each of his shoulders as if she were going to shake away all of his doubts. He'd probably yell at her if she did that though. "Chad, you're going to do _fine_. If I was a bad teacher, which I'm _not_, I wouldn't have been the one asked to instruct you on how to do this without messing it up. Yes, this is a very big deal for you, and I get that. But panicking isn't going to make it any better, and I can promise you that."

He sighed, frowning at her. "Well it makes me feel better. I think I'm allowed to be a little…what's the word I used...apprehensive right now. Do you or do you _not_ agree?"

She smiled, removing her hands from his shoulders. "Yes, you have a right to be "apprehensive". But you have nothing to worry about. Do you honestly think I'd be this calm if I wasn't so self-assured that I had done a good job?" And she _was_ sure he would be fine. If only he could see that.

Chad frowned again, jutting out his bottom lip. "Well, you _could_ be trying to make me look bad. I wouldn't put it past you."

Okay, so maybe he had a point. But she didn't want to ruin this for him. It was too important. "And risk losing my job? Yeah right, Chad, I don't think so. If Mr. Condor fires me now, it's only because of how badly you do out there. And you're going to do _fine_, because _I know what I'm doing_."

Sighing, Chad began to pace around again. "I know, Sonny, okay? But this is huge for me. I…I can't lose this. You have _no idea_ how hard I've worked for this. You think this past week was a lot of work? Try three years of getting up at six in the morning, _every_ morning, to make sure I'm still doing the best I can. That's dedication, okay, and _that's_ what working hard is."

She smiled, chuckling a little and moving to stop him from moving as he passed by her again. "Chad, you just said it yourself; you've worked hard for this. So stop freaking out. _Nothing_ is going to go wrong."

He bit his lip, looking up at her through his bangs. "Sonny…I know I've worked _long_ enough, _hard_ enough. But that's not what I'm worried – another term for apprehensive, okay – about. I know myself, and I know I'm going to freeze up out there. My voice is going to crack, I'm going to fumble up the lyrics, and this whole shebang is going to come crashing down around us. Do you _want_ that to happen? I don't think so. So unless you want to _lose your job_, we should just turn around right now and go home."

Sonny snorted, wrapping her arms around her torso. "Screw my job. We're not going anywhere." The statement was short, but it got the message across.

Chad's eyes widened. Since when did Sonny…grow up? "What?" He was too surprised by her response to form a coherent response, and "what" seemed to be the only thing he could remember how to say. After all, it wasn't every day Sonny Munroe told you to, basically, suck it up and grow a pair. Wasn't she worried about her job _at all_?

Laughing a little, Sonny dropped her arms to her sides. "You heard me. I've done everything I could do. So have you. Whatever happens now, we're in this together. And if you go out there and mess up, at least you tried. If Mr. Condor wants to fire me from So Random! when this is all over, that's up to him and I can't do anything about it. That's his choice, and at least I know you got your shot and I didn't fail. So we aren't going _anywhere_."

Slack jawed, Chad could only nod and mumble, "Uh huh…"

It was enough for her. "Good. You're on in five minutes, by the way." She said it casually, as if it didn't make any difference whether he was going onstage in five minutes or in five days. But that sentence was the first thing to register in Chad's brain since Sonny had practically told him off.

Seemingly startled, Chad grabbed Sonny's shoulders and shook her, his nails practically digging into her skin. Panic was written all over his face, and fear lie near the surface of his eyes. His voice came out cracked. "Five _minutes_? Sonny, you _have_ to run the song and routine with me one more time. Please! I can't do this without you."

That sentence knocked the wind out of Sonny, and for once _she_ was the speechless one. She could barely register the fact that Chad was staring at her and needed her to wake up from her stupor and help him. But she was lost, his words echoing in her mind loudly, pounding in her ear drums. _He couldn't do this without her._

Maybe it was his words, or maybe it was the way his touch was sending shockwaves up her arms, but Sonny felt like her lips were sealed together, her throat suddenly dry. His hands were setting her on fire, and it burned in the best way.

She couldn't focus. All she saw was his face swimming in her thoughts; all she heard was his melodic voice trying to bring her back to reality. She didn't understand what he was trying to tell her. All she knew right then was that she needed to tell him the truth. He made it so hard for her to hate him.

She never meant to love him. It was his fault anyway. If he hadn't charmed his way over to her and wrapped her up in his words and promises, she wouldn't be in this situation right now. She would have been able to help him run through his song one last time before he had to go onstage without feeling like the world was completely muffled. But she had chosen to love him, and now they were stuck like this, with four minutes left until he went onstage and sang for Jay Leno and the huge crowd of people while his instructor couldn't even breathe the right way.

Remembering that Chad only had four minutes left brought her thoughts back into focus, and she nodded, swallowing to try and make her mouth less dry. "I'm fine. Let's run through the song. Do you remember your dance moves?" Chad was a good dancer, she knew, but she also knew memorization when it came to dance was hard for him. He had grown up free styling his dance moves.

Chad nodded, biting his lips. "I think so. But just in case, can you show me again?" She had been the one to help him prepare for his interview with Jay Leno when Mr. Condor found out she had taken dance lessons for ten years and singing lessons for nine. He said if she failed Chad she would be fired. So help her, Sonny would _never_ let him fail. This was Chad's _dream_ they were talking about. And when it came to dreams, she knew a lot about how people felt about them. So she could never really fail Chad, no matter if it _was_ him.

Sonny nodded. "Of course. But I want you to show me what you remember, okay?" He nodded, realizing they were running out of time and not protesting. She let him mechanically go through the whole dance and mouth the lyrics subconsciously, every once in a while telling him to put more soul into it.

Watching Chad, she knew everything would be fine. There was no way he would mess this up. She had done too good of a job teaching him, making sure he ate healthily and worked with her three hours a day for the past week and a half that she had been assigned to help him.

When he was finished, he looked at her again, biting his lip. "I'm going to be okay?"

She smiled softly, nodding. "Chad, you have this completely down. You couldn't mess up even if you wanted to." Not that he would want to anyway, but she was making a point.

Slowly he nodded at her, taking a deep breath. Their time was up. "I have to go out there." He said it more like a question, so she nodded.

Sonny smiled softly at him, gently pushing him towards the stage with her hand. "Go out there. You're going to blow them away. Just don't forget what I taught you."

He nodded again, locking eyes with her for a minute. His eyes were grateful, and she knew this was his silent thank you. She nodded at him, smiling a little. "You're welcome. I'll see you when the show's over. And remember, if you get…apprehensive," she rolled her eyes, "Just look back here. I'm right here, okay?"

He smiled at her before taking his place on stage, microphone in hand. And somehow, somewhere deep in her heart, she already knew: he was going to be _just fine_.

**Was this a bad ending? Because I'm seriously not sure if I should have left it there. So I might make this a two shot if you want. But I felt like it conveyed the deeper meaning inside Channy even without getting them together, so I hope I did okay. Happy birthday to everyone, and I suggest the song Open Eyes by Debby Ryan. It's extremely good. **** SMILES!  
LOL**


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